Never Leave
by FallenAmongstRoses
Summary: **I DO NOT OWN THE HUNGER GAMES** In the first ever Hunger Games, District Twelve tribute, Marina Strummer has no idea what is planned for her and the fellow tributes. What will happen to Sever, the most popular boy in their school, and Marina when they must enter the games?
1. Chapter One - A Pair is Chosen

Chapter One

I stepped outside into the hot summer air. My blonde hair blew in the wind, whipping at my thin face. I squinted my blue eyes as the dirt made an attempt to blow into them. Despite the hot wind, I had a small smile on my face. Mama told me today things would change, that District Twelve might not be so terrible to live in after these Hunger Games were over.

Mama called my name and I turned around to see her standing in the doorway.

"Yes, Mama?" I asked.

Her smile didn't reach her eyes and I tried my best not to let that bother me. "If you do end up in the games, be careful."

"Oh, but I hope I end up in the games! I want to make a difference to my district; I want to be the one to make this a better place!" I said happily.

"Just be safe, sweetie."

My voice became a bit quieter. "I will, Mama. I'll be safe – I promise."

"You're just so young… I don't want you to get hurt!"

"What reason would I get hurt for?"

She smiled, her eyes filled with tears that threatened to spill over. "I love you, Marina. You're such a strong girl. You are so brave…" her voice trailed off as she hugged me, probably so I couldn't see her tears fall.

I responded, caught off guard. "I-I love you, too! I'll always love you… Always."

"Good. Never forget that. I will love you forever and you will always be a part of me, even when I'm an old lady. Well, I'm already old…."

I smiled at her. "You're not old, Mama! Why, I bet you see my teacher and think, 'My word! That man makes me look like a baby! He must be as old as Panem!'"

This made her smile genuinely, despite the tears on her face that I could see when she pulled away from the hug, although she looked as though she never wanted to let me go. For some reason, I couldn't understand what she was so worried about. I wouldn't be in the games for long if I did, in fact, become a tribute.

You see, I didn't know what these Hunger Games really were about. "A way to give back for the rebellion," the Capitol had said. I could have never imagined just how we would have to repay the Capitol.

Today was the reaping – the day that two tributes would be randomly chosen from each district. When I arrived at the square, I realized that, perhaps, I did not want to be a tribute anymore.

I checked in, they pricked my finger and told me to go with the rest of the young citizens. I wondered to myself why there weren't any adults or small children to be chosen as tributes. Why would teenagers be the only tributes? Weren't adults even more capable of doing things?

I was fifteen, but I had always been small for my age, looking more like a child than an adult. I would hate being so small and looking so innocent if it didn't make it easier to gain the affection of adults, causing them to pity me to the point of them giving some money or food to me. Manipulating and lying were two of my greatest strengths. My strengths were few.

I guess I hadn't been paying attention because, the next I knew, there stood a woman on the stage. This woman's strange accent and clothing made it obvious that she was from the Capitol.

She shouldn't be here, I thought.

The Capitol controlled us and, after the rebellion, I saw them as nothing more than a distant uncle that isn't to be trusted rather than a loving father district. I couldn't trust them after they refused to give our district the proper help that we deserved.

"Now, ladies and gentlemen, it is time to choose one boy and one girl from District Twelve. These tributes will represent your district in the very first Hunger Games!" said the flamboyant woman. I think I heard her name said at one point; Platinum Marble, was it? It was a name that was as hideous as her wardrobe. "The time has come to draw the names. May the odds be ever in your favor!" She tittered an annoying laugh in her high-pitched voice.

"As always in proper manners, the ladies are first!" Platinum said before sticking her hand in a large glass bowl, pulling out a piece of paper at random that was bound to have someone's name on it. The person that bore the name that that slip of paper contained would be in the games.

I quickly tried to remember how many people were in my school between the ages of twelve and eighteen. Three hundred and eleven. How many were female? One hundred and fifty nine. I entered my name how many times? "Our first tribute is," Seventy five times. That meant my chances of being a tribute were- "Marina Strummer!" It took me a moment to realize that my name had been called. I stood there in shock as people turned to look at me.

"Marina Strummer?" Platinum repeated in that terribly nasally voice of hers.

I must have looked like a deer caught in headlights as I stepped forward with caution. Platinum encouraged me to get onto the stage. I complied, my body and mind no longer attached with one another, my legs carrying me up the steps as if they had a mind of their own.

My heart was beating fast, my palms sweaty, and my stomach twisted in knots while my mind was empty. I could still feel everyone's eyes on me, even once I stood on stage. I had never liked being the center of attention. I wasn't scared, I was nervous. I had stage fright.

Suddenly, my attention shifted when I heard the boy's name called. Sever Locke. He was the popular boy in school and everyone knew his name. I think every girl's heart must have stopped when they saw him walk up to the stage. If I was an honest person, I would say that my heart stopped, too.

Why did it have to be him and not some person that no one cared about? Couldn't they have chosen someone less important? At least he was guaranteed to get sponsors. I probably wouldn't get sponsors, even if my life depended on it.

It was then that I realized: In the eyes of the Capitol, nobody was important other than themselves.

With this realization, I pounced on Platinum, clawing at her as I screamed angrily, cursing, threatening. The peacemakers attempted to pull me back but I kicked and punched them away, thrashing wildly.

I snapped back to reality. I was still standing on stage. I was standing on the stage next to Sever and Platinum, the woman left unharmed by the actions that never happened. Platinum raised mine and Sever's hands in the air as she proclaimed, "The tributes of District Twelve; Sever Locke and Marina Strummer!"

We were soon ushered into rooms behind the stage, I was alone in the room, Sever was alone in the other, I assumed.

"Three minutes," I heard a man say before my mother came bursting through the doors, crying already. She hugged me tightly.

"Mama, don't cry – I'll be fine," I reassured the weeping woman who nodded weakly at my words.

"I know you will be. You are such a strong girl. I just don't want you to get hurt, Marina."

"Listen to me, Mama. I'm going to be fine. I'll watch out for myself. I'll have Sever to watch out for me, too. I'll be safe, I promise. I'm going to be fine," I repeated.

"Okay… Okay… Just," her breath shook as she struggled to breathe through her frantic tears, "don't forget where you come from. Don't forget who I am and how much you love me. Never forget who you are," her voice broke on the last word.

"I won't! I won't forget! I promise!" I hugged her back tightly. Now I was the one that never wanted to let go. I couldn't help but wonder how long it would be until I saw her again.

Sooner than I could imagine, the man was escorting my mother out and I called to her, "I love you, goodbye!" Had it been three minutes, already?

She was gone before she could respond.


	2. Chapter Two - The Nightmare Is Real

"Sever, do you know how long the games will last for? Do you know when we can go home?"

"Why would you ever want to go home? I'm sure whatever the arena's like, it's way nicer than that wasteland we call home." He ran a hand through his thick hair, making it obvious that he was as worried as I was.

There were a few moments of silence before I spoke again. "I was reading a book about gladiators in Ancient Rome. They fought in places called arenas. They would even fight to the death sometimes." My eyes were now reflecting my inner fear. "Do you think..." I dropped my voice to what was nearly a whisper, "that they'll make _us_ fight to the death?" I wasn't aware that the pitch of my voice had risen, making that fear more obvious.

He leaned forward in his chair, now closer to me. He spoke at the same volume as I. "If we're going to be perfectly honest here? Nothing that the Capitol does surprises me any more. Yes, I do think that they will make us fight to the death, Marina." I gulped and nodded.

"So things are what I feared them to be, then." I paused. "Will you keep me safe?"

"What's in it for me? Do I get some kind of reward for being the hero? Hm?"  
I thought about that for a moment. "_If_ we get back alive, I'll give you half of my tesserae."

"Sounds good to me." He paused in thought. "However, if you go back on your offer, the deal's over and I will kill you if I have to."

"So long as you go gentle on me, I don't…"

"Whoa there, little girl. Who said that I would ever dare to go gentle on anybody? I will do whatever it takes to survive."

I nodded knowingly.

"But," he said, "I want you to promise me something, too."

"And what would that be?" I asked, a look of skepticism on my face as I sat back with my arms folded and my head held high, looking as though I wasn't about to put up with any ideas of his.

"I want you to keep your heart beating for as long as I live in that arena."

I was slightly taken aback by this. Fine, more than slightly. I had practically just formally met Sever and he was already telling me not to die? What was with this guy?

I nodded once more.

At dinner with Platinum and a young man (he appeared to be in his mid-twenties) by the name of Jay, I asked many questions to which Platinum replied with an air that seemed to say, "Do you know nothing?" though Jay was much more patient and polite about these things.

I had been searching for the right words for quite some time before blurting out, "How long do we have left to live?"

Platinum nearly spit out her drink though Jay smiled and answered in an oddly calm manner, a smile on his face, "Whatever do you mean?"

"You know better than anyone else what I mean. You're our mentor, right? You're from district twelve like us! You're supposed to _help_ us! Instead you're here, acting like you know nothing of what's going on! But I know you do," I glared at Jay. "You know exactly what they are going to do to us. I'm smarter than I look, Jay. And I'm smart enough to know that you and the Capitol are executing all of us in the cruelest way possible: Making us kill each other. We are children! We are supposed to be innocent! But you and all your Capitol cronies are just destroying us! You take out innocence and I promise you that we _will _retaliate one day! Maybe not today, maybe not ten years from now, but one day it will come when you least expect it. And we will be ready."

Jay dropped both his fork and his jaw in response to my outburst.

Sever repeated my question, "How long until we die?"

Platinum calmly explained, that unfitting happy air about her present, "You see, dear _children_, we don't know exactly how long it will take."

Sever retorted angrily, "What's that supposed to mean?!"

Platinum nearly laughed – no, tittered. Platinum would never laugh – at his anger. "It means that it could take any amount of time to kill you all. But we would like to keep it under a week or so."

One week. Sever and I would be dead in one week…

Sever replied with rage once more, acting rather defensive, "You give us one week left? Are you _kidding me_? I'm seventeen! This girl…"

"Marina," I reminded him.

"Marina is, like, fourteen!"

"Fifteen," I quietly corrected.

"Yeah, are you really gonna make a fifteen-year-old girl that's this little suffer like that? She won't stand a chance against those hulking packs of higher-ranking districts! She'll get slaughtered in the first five minutes if I don't protect her!"

"The games have nothing against alliances," Jay said simply, more interested now in his food than the conversation itself.

"Sever and I made one anyway," I informed.

"And you were planning to go against our rules if we disapproved?"

"Of course," I said nonchalantly, "we're going to do whatever it takes to survive."

It was then that I noticed the rage in Sever's eyes, a look that made my heart quicken in fear. I looked down and noticed that, under the table, Sever was tightly gripping a steak knife, looking as though he was thinking about killing Platinum and Jay both then and there.

I tightly gripped Sever's wrist and his blue eyes shot me a look of surprise. If looks could talk….

_"I want to end it tonight!" Sever would say._

_ "I know…" I'd reply._

_ "I'm… scared, Marina."_

_ "I am, too. But we'll get through this together."_

_ "…Good."_

In a matter of two days we'd be in the Capitol, training for these sick games. This world disgusted Sever and I. That, at least, was something we could both agree upon.


End file.
